Sale expected to net Hambro £40m

RICHARD HAMBRO, a scion of the famous City dynasty, is set to make about £40m from a deal to sell his upmarket fund manager, JO Hambro Investment Management, to Swiss giant Credit Suisse First Boston.

The two parties said yesterday they had entered into exclusive negotiations that would see Credit Suisse's private bank take control of JO Hambro and run it as an autonomous unit.

Neither side would comment on how much Credit Suisse could pay, but JO Hambro has £1.5 billion of funds under management for about 700 rich clients. Industry sources believe the Swiss bank will pay about £80m for the well-known name. Mr Hambro, 54, and his family trusts own about 50pc of the company with the remainder owned by 10 directors.

JO Hambro was founded in 1986 by Joscelyn Hambro, a former chairman of the family bank. He sold the family stake in the bank and left with his sons Richard, James and Rupert. Respectively, they set up JO Hambro Investment Management, JO Hambro Capital (which helped expose the Greg Hutchings affair at Tomkins last week), and Hambro Magan, the corporate finance boutique.

Richard is the second of the brothers to cash in. In 1996, Rupert sold Hambro Magan to NatWest for £85m. It is now called Hawkpoint Partners. Only JO Hambro Capital, chaired by James, remains in family hands.

Richard Hambro said yesterday: "This is highly positive for our clients and our people. While maintaining our uniqueness, we will be able to draw upon the support and resources of Credit Suisse to further expand our position."

The decision to sell was triggered by a need to reward some of the firm's top fund managers, including Stuart Mitchell, who came from Morgan Grenfell and runs Charlemagne, one of the top-performing hedge funds.